Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments and, more particularly, to surgical forceps having mechanical cutting capabilities.
Background of Related Art
Many surgical instruments include one or more movable handles, levers, actuators, triggers, etc. for actuating and/or manipulating one or more functional components of the surgical instrument. For example, a surgical forceps may include a movable handle that is selectively compressible relative to a stationary handle for moving first and second jaw members of the forceps between spaced-apart and approximated positions for grasping tissue therebetween. Such a forceps may further include additional components such as a trigger for selectively deploying a knife between the jaw members to cut tissue grasped therebetween.
As can be appreciated, as additional functional components are added to the surgical instrument, additional deployment structures or deployment structures capable of actuating more than one component are required. However, multiple deployment structures and/or combined deployment structures may be limited by spatial constraints within the housing of the surgical instrument and/or functional constraints of the components.